Department of Homeland
Security
Daily Open Source
Infrastructure Report
for 19 June 2008
Current Nationwide
Threat Level is
For info click here
http://www.dhs.gov/
•
Agence France-Presse reports that China plans to station food safety and product quality
personnel at its embassy and consulates in the United States. The decision was made
‘based on the principle of reciprocity’, after the U.S. proposed sending American
inspectors to China in December. (See item 13)
•
The Washington Post reports that according to a GAO study, the police agency in charge
of protecting about 9,000 buildings in the Washington area and across the country is so
short-staffed that it has cut outdoor patrols aimed at detecting suspicious individuals and
car bombs. (See item 22)
DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report Fast Jump
Production Industries: Energy; Chemical; Nuclear Reactors, Materials and Waste;
Defense Industrial Base; Dams
Service Industries: Banking and Finance; Transportation; Postal and Shipping;
Information Technology; Communications; Commercial Facilities
Sustenance and Health: Agriculture and Food; Water; Public Health and Healthcare
Federal and State: Government Facilities; Emergency Services; National Monuments and
Icons
Energy Sector
Current Electricity Sector Threat Alert Levels: Physical: ELEVATED,
Cyber: ELEVATED
Scale: LOW, GUARDED, ELEVATED, HIGH, SEVERE [Source: ISAC for the Electricity Sector (ES−ISAC) −
[http://www.esisac.com]
1. June 18, Bloomberg – (International) Nigeria union mulls Chevron strike as talks fail.
Nigeria’s senior white-collar oil workers may strike after talks with Chevron Corp.’s
local unit collapsed, a union official said. “The discussions broke down,” the secretary
of the Chevron unit of Petroleum & Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, or
Pengassan, said by phone Wednesday. A strike may start “any moment from now.”
Pengassan last week set Wednesday as the deadline for resolving a labor dispute with
Chevron. “Discussions are continuing,” a spokeswoman for Chevron said Wednesday.
Source:
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601072&sid=aSu_iLQQMIZ0&refer=en
ergy
2. June 17, Reuters – (National) Solar power costs to be competitive by 2015 – study.
The costs of making electricity with solar power within a decade will reach parity with
power made with fossil fuels like natural gas and coal, a study announced on Tuesday
by supporters of renewable and solar energy says. “As solar prices decline and the
capital and fuel costs for coal, natural gas, and nuclear plants rise, the U.S. will reach a
crossover point by around 2015,” writers of the report, publisher Clean Edge and
environmental nonprofit Co-op America, said in a press statement. The statement says
solar power can make ten percent of U.S. power generation by 2025. Installed solar
power has jumped to 3,000 megawatts in 2008 from 600 MW in 2003, the study said.
Among the study’s findings is that the average cost for solar photovoltaic power will
drop to eight to 18 cents per kilowatt-hour by 2015 from today’s 15 to 32 cents per
KWh, and further to four to eight cents per KWh by 2025.
Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSN17380634200
80617
[Return to top]
Chemical Industry Sector
Nothing to Report
[Return to top]
Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste Sector
3. June 18, Kansas State Collegian – (Kansas) K-Staters affected by E-F4 tornado that
swept through campus. Damaged campus buildings and facilities transformed from
shattered to fixed following the June 11 tornado that touched down on the Kansas State
campus. The university president said all buildings and facilities should be restored to
working order by August 15. Ward Hall, which is home to Kansas State’s nuclear
reactor, remained secure, said the head of the university’s department of mechanical and
nuclear engineering. “The K-State reactor manager reported the tornado damage to the
building to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about 12:30 a.m., Thursday,” said the
department head, who also said officials were pleased with how the reactor weathered.
Source:
http://media.www.kstatecollegian.com/media/storage/paper1022/news/2008/06/18/Cam
pusNews/Blown.Away-3383018.shtml
4. June 18, Tri-City Herald – (Washington) Work resumes 10 months after hazardous
spill at Hanford. Work resumed Tuesday to empty Hanford’s oldest tanks of
radioactive waste more than ten months after a spill of waste during pumping stopped
most retrieval last summer. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its contractor
CH2M Hill Hanford Group are emptying waste from 149 leak-prone single-shell tanks
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into 28 newer double-shell tanks to await treatment and disposal. CH2M Hill began
using a robot, called a Foldtrack, in the tank last May, preparing the waste for retrieval.
The robot was performing well until the first week of June, when one of its tracks came
off. The one-of-a-kind robot was not intended to be removed from the tank after it was
contaminated with radioactive waste, limiting options for repairs. DOE and CH2M Hill
continue to evaluate whether work can continue using the robot with just one of its two
tracks. DOE wants to make sure that the metal on the robot beneath the missing track
would not damage the bottom of the tank. Waste retrieval began Tuesday on waste that
had been positioned by the robot before the track failure.
Source: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/901/story/215607.html
5. June 17, Professional Reactor Operator Society – (National) SRO instructor technical
training – ignored in INPO and NRC audits. One of many concerns expressed by the
Professional Reactor Operator Society during the last two years during meetings with
the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Institute of Nuclear Power
Operations (INPO) is technical training for instructors. INPO committed to the NRC
during one meeting over a year ago that they would look at this. INPO has looked at
instructor training, only platform skills training, but not the requirements that INPO has
in its own guidelines to look at the technical training for instructors. A recent survey has
indicated that at some plants, a major portion of instructors have not attended
requalification in the last year. One major utility is even going as far as proposing that
the only technical training senior reactor operator certified instructors need is a couple
days a year, right before they take the same exam as the licensed operators.
Source: http://www.nucpros.com/?q=node/4664
[Return to top]
Defense Industrial Base Sector
6. June 18, Jane’s – (National) Airlines await C-MANPADS report. The U.S.
Department of Homeland Security has wrapped up a major portion of its CounterMANPADS (man-portable air-defense systems) program designed to gauge the
suitability of military infrared aircraft missile-defense systems for protecting United
States commercial aircraft against shoulder-fired missiles. According to the U.S. State
Department, MANPADS pose a serious potential threat to passenger air travel, the
commercial aviation industry, and military aircraft around the world. “While this
technology has been used by the U.S. military and some foreign commercial airlines, the
challenges in adapting these technologies for use commercially in the U.S. are
significant,” say DHS officials, who add that “there is no credible, specific intelligence
information about planned MANPADS attacks against US commercial aircraft”. DHS
officials have never led the public to believe that a C-MANPADS deployment was ever
a given and it remains to be seen whether U.S. passenger aircraft will carry protection
against heat-seeking missiles.
Source: http://www.janes.com/news/publicsafety/jar/jar080618_1_n.shtml
7. June 18, Scotsman – (National; International) New security blow after minister’s
laptop stolen. Great Britain’s Communities secretary had a laptop containing sensitive
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files on extremism stolen from her constituency office in Salford. The computer
contained restricted government files on extremism and defense, although aides stressed
none of the files was “top secret.” The loss is the third such security breach in the
government in a week, and could constitute a breach of the Official Secrets Act. The
latest lapse sparked another row over security, with the Conservatives insisting that the
government had not regained control of the security agenda.
Source: http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/New-security-blow-after-.4194747.jp
[Return to top]
Banking and Finance Sector
8. June 18, Information Week – (National) Finjan finds health and business data being
auctioned online. More than 500 megabytes of premium health- and business-related
data, along with stolen social security numbers, have been found being offered to the
highest bidder on crimeware servers in Argentina and Malaysia. Security firm Finjan
discovered the illicit data market and issued a report about its findings on Wednesday.
“Not too long ago, credit card numbers and bank accounts with PINs were selling for
$100 or more each, on Web sites offering this type of stolen information,” the report
says. “Nowadays, prices have dropped to $10 or $20 per item.” Cyber criminals have
responded by focusing on high-value data and protecting it with encryption to prevent
others from stealing their stolen property. This allows them to limit availability, to
auction access off to the highest bidder, and to maintain prices. Among the things Finjan
found were Citrix login credentials for a well-known U.S. hospital and a U.S. air carrier,
Outlook account information, and social security numbers.
Source:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/attacks/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=20
8403968
9. June 17, WSBT 2 South Bend – (Indiana) UPDATE: List of affected customers
growing after reports of fraudulent withdrawals. Local police and FBI agents are
investigating after hundreds across the area reported money missing from their bank
accounts over the weekend. Area police agencies are reporting account breaches from at
least 10 different banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions. Thousands of
dollars have been reported stolen. The accounts of theft varied wildly, from withdrawals
of a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. The vast majority of them came from
ATM’s or debit card transactions posted in Nigeria, Russia, Ukraine, or Spain. The list
of financial institutions affected is still growing. Some have been verified by banks and
credit unions or local police. They include: Notre Dame Federal Credit Union;
KeyBank; Teacher’s Credit Union; Michiana’s Finest Bank; Elkhart County Farm
Bureau Credit Union; E-Trade Financial and Chiphone Federal Credit Union. WSBT
has also received unconfirmed reports from customers at the following institutions who
have reported money missing as well: National City Bank; Bank of America; First
Federal Savings; and Wachovia Securities Spending Account.
Source: http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/20146509.html
10. June 17, CFO.com – (National) Astonishing sentence for astonishing scam. The
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cooperation of a former chief financial officer who was an accused mastermind of a
more than $680-million scheme, has led so far to the arrest of 15 U.S. defendants. The
former finance chief of three metals companies, including Allied Deals, was charged
with participating in a sprawling, international Ponzi scheme that had resulted in over
$680 million in losses for about 20 banks worldwide. These banks include: JPMorgan
Chase; Fleet National Bank; PNC Bank N.A.; KBC Bank N.V.; Hypo Vereins Bank
N.A.; Dresdner Bank Lateinamerika AG; China Trust Bank; and General Bank. The
suspect helped two brothers and other co-conspirators allegedly set up and control an
elaborate network of hundreds of sham nominee companies around the world to serve as
fake purchasers of metal from Allied Deals so that the defendants could get loans from
the victim banks. They allegedly used loan proceeds from one victim bank to make the
loan payments required by another victim bank, while concealing that the newly-issued
loans were not being used to fund actual, arms-length metal transactions and that the
money used to pay off the loans had not been provided by the buyers of metal in bankfinanced sales.
Source: http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/11569853/c_11566846?f=home_todayinfinance
[Return to top]
Transportation Sector
11. June 17, Gallup Independent – (New Mexico) Toxic leak closes N.M. Highway 124.
Flammable liquid leaking from a tractor-trailer closed parts of New Mexico Highway
124 for seven hours Monday. The driver carrying a highly flammable resin from St.
Louis to Chico, California, was notified by a fellow truck driver that he was losing
liquid from the trailer and pulled over around 10:30 a.m. The leakage was caused by
damage to a 55-gallon drum containing the hazardous chemical, apparently from a
forklift during the loading process in St. Louis, state police said. No one was injured.
Source: http://www.gallupindependent.com/2008/06June/061708toxic.html
[Return to top]
Postal and Shipping Sector
12. June 17, Lebanon Daily News – (Pennsylvania) Homemade bomb found in Millcreek.
A homemade explosive device was found in a mailbox in Millcreek Township,
Pennsylvania, Monday morning, police said. Millcreek police received a call at 8:35
a.m. about a suspicious item in a mailbox. Police were assisted by Newmanstown
Volunteer Fire Co. and the state police’s Hazardous Device and Explosives Section. The
device was cleared by the state police team at the scene. The incident is under
investigation.
Source: http://www.ldnews.com/ci_9611001?source=most_viewed
[Return to top]
Agriculture and Food Sector
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13. June 18, Agence France-Presse – (National) China to send food, product inspectors
to US. The United States proposed sending American inspectors to China in December
after millions of items manufactured in Chinese factories were recalled globally because
they were considered unsafe. “Based on the principle of reciprocity, China plans to
station food safety and product quality personnel at its embassy and consulates in the
United States at necessary times,” the head of the General Administration of Quality
Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine said. Beijing revoked the export licenses of 700
toy factories over safety failings last week after inspecting all 3,540 toy firms with the
permits. The tighter monitoring also prompted the Chinese government to ban the sale
of nearly 600 foreign-made food items last month, including some from major U.S.
companies. Two flavors of Procter & Gamble’s Pringles potato chips imported from the
United States were found to contain a chemical which could cause cancer. Coca-Cola’s
berry-flavored Fanta soft-drink, imported from South Korea, was also banned for
containing too much benzoic acid, which can damage the liver and the kidneys. Beijing
also recalled Peter Pan peanut butter made in the United States by ConAgra Foods last
year, after batches sold in China were linked to an American salmonella outbreak.
Source: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jrMs47DivIY2JWUVDZ9jNZTteLpA
14. June 17, Associated Press – (Texas) Texas agriculture officials are already
predicting record losses. Across Texas, the nation’s leading producer of cotton and
cattle, heat and drought conditions combined with skyrocketing input costs could lead to
record losses in agriculture this year. In the past month, the world’s largest contiguous
cotton patch has endured unseasonably high temperatures and strong winds, sucking
moisture from soil and whipped plants with blowing sand. Cotton producers in southern
Texas have already lost nearly their entire crop. The tally for all crops and livestock,
which will not be figured until later in the growing season, could top the largest singleyear loss of $4.1 billion, which was set in 2006. The cost to grow crops or raise
livestock is higher this year because of energy costs for pumping, the high price of
fertilizer made from natural gas, and diesel prices that are well above $4 a gallon. Crop
insurance payments do not cover losses from these costs, officials said.
Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5841537.html
15. June 17, Associated Press – (National) Florida tomatoes linked to salmonella. The
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says tomatoes grown in central and southern
Florida and parts of Mexico earlier this spring are among the leading suspects in the
salmonella outbreak, which began in early April. But state agriculture officials say they
are fairly confident Florida is not the source of the contamination. The FDA says those
areas were supplying most of the tomatoes when the salmonella outbreak began. The
salmonella outbreak has sickened at least 277 people in 28 states and Washington, D.C.
The latest known illness struck June 5, reinforcing a warning from the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention that the outbreak is not over yet.
Source: http://www.wmbb.com/gulfcoastwest/mbb/news.apx.-content-articles-MBB2008-06-17-0007.html
16. June 17, Southwest Farm Press – (Texas) Possible fever tick infestation is disturbing
for South Texas. The cattle fever tick is a pest Texas ranchers, particularly those
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operating along the Mexican border, have dealt with for more than a century. Although
“cattle fever,” the actual disease that can be transmitted by these ticks, was officially
eradicated from the United States in 1943, it has never been eradicated from Mexico. A
permanent quarantine zone, which parallels the Rio Grande River, is monitored by a
small force of U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service (APHIS) division employees. During the past three years, 20 percent to 25
percent of premises with new tick infestations have been in pastures just outside the
zone. Last year some 15 pastures that had livestock vacated for months were discovered
with fever tick infestations on deer trapped or harvested from those pastures. APHIS
personnel supervise the dipping and inspection of all cattle in the zone to make sure they
have no fever ticks. All quarantine regulations must be in effect before cattle raised in
the zone can be shipped to market or moved to other pastures outside the permanent
quarantine zone.
Source: http://southwestfarmpress.com/livestock/fever-tick-0617/
[Return to top]
Water Sector
17. June 17, Richmond Times-Dispatch – (Virginia) Water quality takes dive in Va.
streams, rivers. Virginia has added about 1,100 miles of streams and rivers to its list of
impaired waters, bringing the state total to 10,600 miles. In addition, 94,000 acres of
lakes and reservoirs and 2,200 square miles of estuaries are impaired, according to a
report issued yesterday by the Department of Environmental Quality. The report reflects
six years of study, from 2001 through 2006, and comes out every two years. Waterquality standards show whether a body of water can support several specific uses, such
as for swimming or for aquatic life. If it does not, it is considered impaired. The waterquality report is the most comprehensive look to date at watersheds in Virginia.
Yesterday’s report indicated that an Environmental Protection Agency deadline for
Chesapeake Bay cleanup by 2010 will not be attainable.
Source: http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-06-170118.html
18. June 17, Government Executive – (National) White House orders agencies to collect
water quality data. The White House on Tuesday directed federal agencies to begin
producing consistent information about water availability, including quality and
quantity. The pilot program, which will be led by the Forest Service, is part of a broader
plan to develop a set of national indicators that will chart environmental trends. The
national environmental status and trends indicators, or NEST, as the broader plan is
known, are to be used to create “high-quality, scientifically based statistical measures of
selected conditions of our environment and natural resources” that government officials,
lawmakers, and others can use to assess the impact of federal programs. The pilot
program was conceived by OMB, the Council on Environmental Quality, and the Office
of Science and Technology based on recommendations by the National Academy of
Public Administration in December 2007. In a letter to agency administrators, the White
House offices said the pilot “will demonstrate the collaborative interagency processes
that will be used to select and implement indicators and will improve the consistency
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and interoperability of data.”
Source: http://govexec.com/dailyfed/0608/061708kp1.htm
[Return to top]
Public Health and Healthcare Sector
19. June 18, Clarion Ledger – (Mississippi) Reports of West Nile come early in season.
Another case of West Nile has been reported in Mississippi this week, and state health
officials say there is no way to predict how many people could contract the mosquitoborne virus before the year’s end. Mississippi experienced a record West Nile season in
2006, with 184 cases and 14 deaths. The number of cases dropped to 136 last year, and
there were four deaths. But with four cases already reported in the months ahead of the
peak season, some are concerned about how many cases the state could see this year.
Arizona, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas also have reported West Nile cases to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already this year, though Mississippi has
reported the most.
Source:
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080618/NEWS/806180346
/1001/news
20. June 17, WSAZ 3 Huntington – (West Virginia) Legionnaire’s disease kills one,
hospitalizes two. Three people in Kanawha County, West Virginia, have contracted
Legionnaire’s Disease within the past few weeks. One patient died, and two others are
still in the hospital. Health department officials have started an investigation to see if
they have any exposures in common. Two of the cases, including the death, were in
eastern Kanawha County, the other in South Charleston.
Source: http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/20075244.html
21. June 17, Associated Press – (National) FDA warns about fraudulent cancer
treatments. The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on teas, supplements,
creams and other products that falsely claim to cure, treat or prevent cancer even though
they are not agency-approved drugs. All are available for sale on the Internet. The
agency has sent 25 warning letters to companies and individuals marketing these
products, FDA officials said Tuesday. Twenty-three of the letters went to domestic
companies and two to foreign individuals. FDA officials said the statements made about
these products are dangerous because they could prevent a patient from seeking proper
treatment for cancer. They could also harm a cancer patient by interacting with other
drugs the patient is taking. Officials said that if the warnings are not heeded, the agency
could take action including seizure of the products and criminal prosecution.
Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080617/ap_on_he_me/med_fda_cancer_fraud;_ylt=Arer3
KdF9XXNsfgJv9JoAcnVJRIF
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Government Facilities Sector
22. June 18, Washington Post – (National) Agency eliminates car bomb patrols. The
police agency in charge of protecting many federal buildings is so short-staffed that it
has cut outdoor patrols aimed at detecting suspicious individuals and car bombs,
according to a report to be released Wednesday. The study, by the Government
Accountability Office (GAO), was requested by the leaders of five congressional
committees after earlier hearings raised concern about the Federal Protective Service.
The protective service provides security for more than one million federal employees at
about 9,000 buildings in the Washington area and across the country. Caught in a cash
squeeze in recent years, the agency has reduced its staff by about 20 percent, to 1,100
officers, the study said. They oversee about 15,000 contract security guards at the
facilities. The GAO study, conducted from April 2007 to this month, notes that the
protective service is hiring 150 officers and strengthening its finances. However, the
actions “may not fully resolve” the security problems, according to a copy of the report
obtained by the Washington Post. At many facilities, officers no longer patrol to prevent
or detect crime, the report said. As a result, “law enforcement personnel cannot
effectively monitor individuals surveilling federal buildings, inspect suspicious vehicles
(including potential vehicles for bombing federal buildings) and detect and deter
criminal activity,” the report said.
Source:
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080618/FRONTPAGE/8
06180304
23. June 17, Press of Atlantic City – (New Jersey) Second bomb threat in week forces
courthouse evacuation. For the second time in a week, police evacuated the
Cumberland County Courthouse on Monday morning after receiving a bogus bomb
threat. Monday’s threat marked the eighth time in six months that such a threat has been
made. The first happened in late December, followed by one in February, two in March,
one in both April and May, and two – so far – in June. The previous threats, according
to police, were all made by a male and directed to the county’s 911 call center.
Monday’s threat, however, was transmitted directly to the courthouse. Investigators at
several county law enforcement agencies, including the Sheriff’s Department, the
Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office, and the Bridgeton Police Department, are
working to uncover the identity of the person, or people, involved.
Source: http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/182/story/185073.html
24. June 17, United Press International – (Colorado) GAO questions NORAD security
measures. A government report says the Pentagon misled the U.S. Congress about the
severity of the security issues surrounding a move of the North American Aerospace
Defense Command headquarters in Colorado. The U.S. General Accounting Office said
in a classified report that security systems at the NORAD’s new facilities at Peterson Air
Force Base in Colorado Springs “would fail if attacked by even a low-level threat,” the
Gazette newspaper in Colorado Springs reported Tuesday. U.S. Air Force leaders told
Congress March 3 there were “several physical security problems” at Peterson’s
Building 2, but the GAO report went well beyond that to describe security flaws that
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have raised doubts about the wisdom of NORAD’s 2006 decision to move the command
from a complex inside Cheyenne Mountain to Peterson, the Gazette reported. The report
obtained by the newspaper was classified but experts it contacted regarding its
conclusions said serious questions should be asked about NORAD’s move.
Source:
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/06/17/GAO_questions_NORAD_security_measur
es/UPI-50181213723575/
[Return to top]
Emergency Services Sector
25. June 18, Hattiesburg American – (Mississippi) PRCC to hold emergency drill. Pearl
River Community College in Poplarville, Mississippi, will conduct a full-scale mock
emergency exercise Thursday on the Poplarville campus. Area residents and passersby
should not be alarmed by the presence of emergency response vehicles on or near the
campus Thursday morning, said PRCC’s public safety director. The exercise will end
before noon. PRCC is holding the drill in conjunction with the Department of Homeland
Security and area emergency services agencies in order to comply with the federal
National Incident Management System, he said. Officials from Ittawamba and
Mississippi Gulf Coast community colleges and Jones County Junior College will be on
hand to observe the exercise.
Source:
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080618/NEWS01/8
0617031
26. June 17, Homeland Security Today – (National) Public health planners continue to
see problems with fed pandemic plans. As the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) continues to move forward with its pandemic preparedness and
response guidelines, authorities at state and local levels, and in the private sector, are
voicing not infrequently substantive objections to some of the guidance. HSToday.us
has heard from a number of public health sector authorities who have expressed
reservations over HHS’s policies for using antivirals, for instance. Other areas of
guidance for preparedness, like how respirators should be used, have been called into
question. Authorities said proposed guidelines could lead to abrupt shortages of N-95
face masks. They say production and supply chain issues have not been adequately
addressed. Public health planners who work on seeing the big picture of preparedness
for a catastrophic event like a global pandemic say the government still has not gotten a
handle on things like coping with continuity and security for multiple critical resources
supply chains and quarantine issues. One seasoned public health planner said, “I think
the reasoning may be flawed in certain areas, particularly the lack of attention to critical
infrastructure, and lack of notation that poor/ethnic minorities may need particular
support from law enforcement, as their communities may be most vulnerable to social
disorder.”
Source: http://hstoday.us/content/view/3856/149/
27. June 17, KSAT 12 San Antonio – (Texas) Randolph AFB, Universal City performing
- 10 -
emergency drill. Universal City and Randolph Air Force Base officials were expected
to conduct a mock disaster test and evaluation of its emergency response on Wednesday.
The test, according to city officials: A T-6 aircraft will have crashed into a Union Pacific
railcar carrying toxic chemicals. The emergency scene will happen just north of the
base. There is no timetable for the completion of the drill, according to city officials.
Source: http://www.ksat.com/news/16637768/detail.html
[Return to top]
Information Technology
28. June 18, Agence France-Presse – (International) OECD ministers agree to make
Internet safer, more widely used. Ministers and officials from leading industrial
nations agreed Wednesday to make the Internet safer and more accessible, to strengthen
its role as a driving force in the global economy. The Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) ministerial meeting adopted a “Seoul
declaration” after a two-day forum on the future of the Internet economy. The
declaration cites the need to strengthen security, reduce malicious activity online and
protect personal data as well as privacy. The worldwide web has increasingly become a
key global platform for commerce and social interaction but faces an ever-growing
challenge of trust and confidence, according to an OECD report to the meeting. The
report describes the Internet as a major driving force in global economic growth,
responsible for 17.9 percent of OECD member states’ gross domestic product growth
over the past decade. The group said that “protecting the Internet is a public policy
priority.” More than 2,500 IT experts and officials took part in the meeting
Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080618/tc_afp/skoreaoecdinterneteconomy;_ylt=Aryg0k
irui7IyldpacIwljMjtBAF
29. June 17, Computerworld – (Iowa) Iowa floods forcing firms to race to keep IT afloat.
As floodwaters continue to hammer Cedar Falls, Iowa, local businesses are already
assessing the environmental disaster’s impact on IT operations, and how their disaster
recovery plans are faring. As of today, 100 blocks in the city’s downtown are
underwater and 3,900 homes have been evacuated in Cedar Falls. The CEO of
T8Design, said his company had prepared disaster recover plans to deal with tornados or
electric outages caused by human negligence, but executives never dreamed they would
have to contend with a swollen Cedar River surpassing 500-year flood levels. Once it
became apparent that rising floodwaters could damage its IT operations, the maker of
software development tools warned its customers of possible latency issues. However,
no disruptions or degradation of service has occurred to date, he noted.
Source:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxono
myName=security&articleId=9099558&taxonomyId=17&intsrc=kc_top
30. June 17, CNet News – (National) New DNSChanger Trojan variant targets routers.
Secure Computing researchers have discovered a new variant of the DNSChanger
Trojan in the wild that attacks routers, meaning any Web surfing computer on that
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network could be at risk of being redirected to a malicious Web site. The DNSChanger
Trojan changes the DNS settings to point to a host Web site address supplied by the
attackers, the director of data mining research at Secure Computing, said in an interview
with CNET News.com on Tuesday. “Your network is essentially reconfigured to do all
the (domain) name resolutions over this malicious name server,” he said. The
DNSChanger Trojan is able to access all the settings and functions on the router. It only
knows about a few popular router Web interface URLs that it can use to change DNS
settings at this time, but that is expected to change and more routers will be affected,
according to a Secure Computing blog entry. The Trojan is believed to be created by the
creators of the family of malware called “Zlob,” which masquerades as an ActiveX
video codec.
Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9970972-7.html?tag=cd.blog
31. June 17, iTWire – (International) Recent reports of SCADA’s demise have been
greatly exaggerated. In the past few days, a large number of reports have appeared in
the press regarding a security vulnerability in a widely used Supervisory Control and
Data Acquisition (SCADA) package. A vulnerability was discovered by Core Security
Technologies and reported in detail to Citect on February 6, 2008. After analysis of the
issue, Citect responded to Core that, in effect, they could not determine how the
vulnerability might affect their customers as the software was specifically designed and
implemented to be well-separated from the internet, and as far as Citect knew, that was
how it was being implemented. Citect added that it would be addressed in the next
release of the software. Specifically, the only way a user of the software could be
vulnerable is to have active ODBC interfaces and to be directly connected to the internet
without any security.
Source: http://www.itwire.com/content/view/18805/53/
Internet Alert Dashboard
To report cyber infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact US−CERT at soc@us−cert.gov or visit their
Website: http://www.us−cert.gov.
Information on IT information sharing and analysis can be found at the IT ISAC (Information Sharing and Analysis Center)
Website: https://www.it−isac.org/.
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Communications Sector
32. June 18, CNet News – (National) Verizon boosts Fios speeds. Verizon
Communications is boosting speeds for its Fios fiber-to-the-home service, the company
plans to announce Wednesday. The company’s COO is expected to announce the speed
upgrades during his keynote speech at the NxtComm trade show in Las Vegas. The
upgrades come as Verizon customers use more bandwidth intensive applications such as
video downloading and photo sharing.
Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9971575-7.html
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Commercial Facilities Sector
Nothing to Report
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National Monuments & Icons Sector
33. June 17, Hartford Courant – (Connecticut) Vandalizing of Bristol monument decried.
Police are investigating the toppling of the life-size metal statue. The monument, a copy
of the soldier on the town’s Spanish-American War memorial dedicated in 1929 in
Rockwell Park, was discovered Saturday morning bent on its stone pedestal, the legs
shattered and other parts of the figure cracked. Pieces of the cast-metal statue found on
the ground were gathered by town workers and are being saved. The city park’s
superintendent estimates, “It could cost $15,000 to $18,000 to fix it.”
Source: http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctstatue0617.artjun17,0,2968843.story
34. June 17, Bay City News – (California) 33,000-acre wildfire burning in Monterey
County nearly 50 percent contained. A wildfire that has burned for more than a week
and consumed 33,305 acres of the Los Padres National Forest in Monterey County is
nearly 50 percent contained, fire officials reported Monday. Investigators believe the
Indians Fire, burning mainly within the Ventana Wilderness, started from an escaped
campfire on June 8, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Steep terrain, limited access,
heavy fuels, and dry, gusty winds are making the fight against the fire difficult and there
is no estimated time when the fire will be fully contained. Nine firefighters have been
injured battling the fire, which was 46 percent contained Monday night.
Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9610775?nclick_check=1
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Dams Sector
35. June 18, New York Times – (Illinois; Iowa; Missouri) Floodwaters flow on, swelling
the Mississippi. On Wednesday, in parts of Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri, all eyes were
on the Mississippi, which was expected to reach record levels in some areas before
cresting this week. Law enforcement officials and residents were focused on the
patchwork of levees that protect these shores. Officials were closely monitoring at least
27 levees for the possibility the waters might flow over them. Two of those levees were
breached early on Wednesday morning near the small town of Meyer in the northwest
corner of Illinois, deluging roads and farmland and prompting authorities to force about
50 people to leave their homes. On Tuesday, at least four breaks were reported among
scores of levees, officials said, three of them in Missouri. Near Gulfport, Illinois, a levee
gave way before dawn, allowing the river to surge through a hole that soon grew to 300
feet wide. By evening, several other levees were showing signs of sand boils. Officials
said the flooding would probably decrease farther south. St. Louis, where river levels are
expected to reach their highest on Saturday, is not expected to face much damage, said
an official with the St. Louis district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The rising
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waters here, once more, led to questions about whether the levees and flood walls along
this river produced greater flooding downstream. Some communities have pressed for
such protections; other voices have pushed to allow the river to take a natural course,
reopening wetlands that might allow the release of water without catastrophic flooding.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/us/18flood.html
36. June 17, Chicago Tribune – (Illinois) When Fox River rises, no holding back
emotions over control of dams. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources makes
the call on when to open dams at McHenry and Algonquin, which control – to the extent
that engineering can – the flow of water through the Chain O’ Lakes and the Fox, the
state water resources manager said Tuesday. Gates at both dams were nudged open June
6, and incrementally increased over the following three days, according to the manager.
Both dams were fully open by June 9. The decision to open or close the gates is never
simple. Several monitoring sites send information on rainfall, wind speed, and direction,
and water flows directly to computers monitored by the state natural resources
department, said a hydraulic engineer. In normal times, by raising or lowering metal lift
gates, lock tenders can help maintain normal water levels above the dam and monitor
river levels. It is essential to prevent the heavily used Chain O’ Lakes from becoming
too shallow for boats, officials said.
Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chifloodwatch_both_18jun18,0,122254.story
37. June 17, Associated Press – (Montana) Judge OKs Mike Horse Dam cleanup
settlement. A federal judge has signed off on a $37 million settlement to clean up the
Mike Horse Dam and a connected mining complex on the Blackfoot River in Montana.
The U.S. district judge approved the $37 million settlement agreement filed with his
court April 25 by the United States and the state of Montana against Asarco and Arco.
Asarco and Arco will each pay the state $8 million for the Upper Blackfoot Mining
Complex cleanup. The state will receive an additional $19.8 million from Asarco, and
the federal government will get $1 million to oversee the state implementation of the
cleanup effort. The federal government also will receive $230,000 for past costs.
Source:
http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=8511638&nav=menu227_7
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DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report Contact Information
DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Reports − The DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report is a
daily [Monday through Friday] summary of open−source published information concerning significant critical
infrastructure issues. The DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report is archived for ten days on the Department of
Homeland Security Website: http://www.dhs.gov/iaipdailyreport
DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report Contact Information
Content and Suggestions:
Removal from Distribution List:
Send mail to NICCReports@dhs.gov or contact the DHS Daily
Report Team at (202) 312-3421
Send mail to NICCReports@dhs.gov or contact the DHS Daily
Report Team at (202) 312-3421 for more information.
Contact DHS
To report physical infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact the National Infrastructure
Coordinating Center at nicc@dhs.gov or (202) 282−9201.
To report cyber infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact US−CERT at soc@us−cert.gov or
visit their Web page at www.us−cert.gov.
Department of Homeland Security Disclaimer
The DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report is a non−commercial publication intended to educate and inform
personnel engaged in infrastructure protection. Further reproduction or redistribution is subject to original copyright
restrictions. DHS provides no warranty of ownership of the copyright, or accuracy with respect to the original source material.
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